Berserk Golden Age Arc II: Capture of Doldrey [Review]
- Thread starter Walter
- Start date
Not to be nitpikcy, but it seems like there should be an option between 'excellent' and 'so-so'. I haven't seen the second movie yet, but if this were a thread for the first movie, I'd kind of be forced into saying it was 'so-so'. I definitely didn't think it was excellent, but 'so-so' just seems like barely a step above poor.
Gobolatula
praise be to grail!
Anyone have theirs yet? If so REVIEWS & SCREEN SHOTS ASAP PLS!!
Mine shipped, but the tracking number isn't working yet..
Walter, are you guys gonna do another special edition of the podcast? You better...
Mine shipped, but the tracking number isn't working yet..
Walter, are you guys gonna do another special edition of the podcast? You better...
Gobolatula
praise be to grail!
Gahhh mine too. I'll probably have to wait til Friday to watch mine though.JezzaX said:
Ditto, 10:30 AM : p ... but I'll have a long loooong day at work, so :'/DirectDK said:
EDIT: My order just came in and for folks who are expecting it or who have not ordered it yet, this is what the outside looks like.
I watched all the extras and the first 8 or so minutes of the movie. I want to watch it allllll, but I feel like waiting for a fansub of it.
The movie starts with a brief recap, and then the opening credits again. The opening credits are mostly the same, but they interweaved some new footage in some of the cuts. After the credits are done, it starts
. I thought the visuals were really beautiful and Guts already pulled some bad-assery moves on the enemies. I'm already liking the animation better than the first. The 5.1 surround sound was excellently done during the battle. A ton of motion in the rear speakers. Oh, and Adon's horse was kinda cute looking, hahaha.
The extras had 5 trailers. The wretched "Disney international" one, the trailer for movie III, and then 3 trailers for movie 1: English dub, French dub, and Russian dub (I think). Hearing the French voice actors was a pleasant surprised. I don't know a single bit of French, but it sounded like it fit really well, and it sounded very dynamic and expressive, much like the Japanese language sounds to me.
The final extra was SUSUMU HIRASAWA performing ARIA live. That was some DOPE ASS SHIT! I wish I could rip it for you guys but I don't have a bluray drive on my computer. I'm sure someone out there will do it in due time.
Anyways, so far so good! I'm really looking forward to seeing the rest.
The movie starts with a brief recap, and then the opening credits again. The opening credits are mostly the same, but they interweaved some new footage in some of the cuts. After the credits are done, it starts
right in the middle of the battle where afterwards Adon and Casca fight and then she and Guts fall into the river below
The extras had 5 trailers. The wretched "Disney international" one, the trailer for movie III, and then 3 trailers for movie 1: English dub, French dub, and Russian dub (I think). Hearing the French voice actors was a pleasant surprised. I don't know a single bit of French, but it sounded like it fit really well, and it sounded very dynamic and expressive, much like the Japanese language sounds to me.
The final extra was SUSUMU HIRASAWA performing ARIA live. That was some DOPE ASS SHIT! I wish I could rip it for you guys but I don't have a bluray drive on my computer. I'm sure someone out there will do it in due time.
Anyways, so far so good! I'm really looking forward to seeing the rest.
My copy has arrived but I'm stuck at work, I shall try to provide a review once I've seen it this evening.
EDIT:
WARNING POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD!
First off, the animation at the beginning of the film between Casca and Adon is horrendous, you can really tell where the CG is being too heavily used, it's like a cheap Children's show on Nickelodeon, the lines on Adon as he closes in on the camera become horribly thick and tacky looking.
Once Guts and Casca reach the woods the animation appears to pick up slightly, but even some of the 2D artwork and animation isn't brilliant. Then we're met with the choppy flashback scene that we got from the Young Animal clip I posted a while back, we all know how painful that is, not only in animation but for accuracy, at least the music shortly after makes up for it (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Li1LyFOiH3s).
We very quickly move on to the 100 man battle, still with a lot of CG, likely to deal with the amount of people on screen at once, but it doesn't hold up too well, it's fairly choppy in places, but at least Adon is looking a little bit better. I do find some amusement in Guts throwing his helmet at an opponent though and some of the camera scanning is a nice touch. Guts does have a real sense of struggle about him during this scene, they seem to have carried this over quite nicely. It would appear that rather cocky sword volley has disappeared (although I may have just missed it, yep I missed it, it's still there) and Samson doesn't make an appearance either.
We seem to see Guts going Berserk for the first time and have a real indication of what to expect when he becomes the Black Swordsman. The amount of destruction Guts has left in the battle is very heavily shown and appears really impressive, the lighting for this scene is also quite nice with added morning mist over the top. Hang on, what's this?! They've captured Adon?! Okay, let's see how this works out.
In the next scene we're greeted with a cow being launched from a catapult (so there goes our campfire of dreams scene) at the Castle and yet more horrendous CG moments where characters appear to be missing chins because the cel shading is ineffective. The most simple scenes are probably the most neatly animated. The meeting with the king to plan the battle is probably the cleanest of all the scenes in the film so far, but I feel like we've gotten here far too quickly, but then we know they have to cram things into a set running time.
Gennon appears and sounds more like Shun Di from the Virtua Fighter series in this interpretation
More choppy CG animation shortly after of the Hawks leading the attack on Doldrey, we see Boscone gearing up to take part in the battle. There are some real hit and miss moments during this battle, some things are particularly impressive from a distance to show the scale, but up close they just look shoddy, it's all pretty inconsistent, the music also leaves little to be desired, someone really needs to re-dub this with Forces.
As the scene develops, we appear to see and hear more from the Hawks, with a little bit of show from Corkus, but not enough to do much in the ways of character development. Casca is doing a princess Leia wandering into the castle leading in Adon with her Crossbow...now that's a bit of a let down and a real change from the original plan of action
Adon breaks free from being captured and challenges Casca.
Now we're on to the fight between Guts and Boscone. We see only bits and pieces of the fight as it goes back between this one and Casca with Adon. What's going on IN the castle seems to have very little involvement, it doesn't have the same impact as the manga or the 97 anime series
in any way, Casca is keen to take on Adon herself with no interference from anyone else, she is soon backed up against a wall by Adon, instead of using her sword, like she does in the manga, she manages to dodge his attack, take his sword and jam it through his mouth. Much like everything Studio 4C has done so far, I see no reason why this needed changing.
Back on to Guts who has since been knocked off his horse, we see Boscone do a single sweep against multiple Hawks soldiers showering the place with blood and guts, which is quite a nice touch. Guts throws a flag at Boscone to distract him before following up with an attack to cut both him and his horse in half. Now this is the point where I get both mad and upset about the removal of
and Studio 4C make more fucking retarded changes 
Of course, now we see the Hawks have taken the castle and there's a little celebration among Pippin, Corkus, Judo, Rickert etc. Griffith has his standard talk with Gennon before putting a sword through his eye.
We've had a little battlefield reflection and a view of the damage before the village celebrations of everyone returning from battle. There's a lot of towns folk being animated in this scene, we even see a girl climb up on Corkus' horse to give him a bit of a snog? WTF?!
We see Guts have his interaction with Gaston, which is nice, but I can't help but feel that across both the films so far that he's gotten even more character development than the rest of The Hawks.
On to the ballroom scene, we actually appear to be getting some development from the Hawks and then we're greeted with....
so it appears Azan is in there too..
Guts and Casca have their talk outside, they come back in to a speech from the king and alas there is no poisoning of Griffith as we all know. Instead we are greeted with a very awkward dance scene that is not only poorly animated it shows characters portrayed in a way I was hoping I wouldn't see them. Guts and Casca dancing? FUCK NO! NO STUDIO 4C! NO!
Cut to the next morning, Guts is leaving through a snow covered land, where Casca and co. are waiting for him up ahead. Now, this scene doesn't make sense, as we didn't see any of the Hawks foreseeing Guts leaving, so them being there doesn't quite add up. Corkus has a lot to say in this instance. We soon move on to the duel between Guts and Griffith, which has a fair amount of build up and has some nice visual effects when looking out over the landscape behind them, despite the inaccurate and horribly flawed character layout. I also wonder why there is a massive circle left around them when Guts swings his sword down, it seems a little exaggerated to me. Guts sure enough leaves with Griffith in his state of despair.
We're then on to Charlotte's sensitive boobs, which is another awkward scene we could all do without
but we're soon in a full blown and rather erotic sex scene that's a little bit more pornographic than I had initially expected, which may give us some ideas to how they will handle the eclipse. This scene also uses the horrible stuttering frame rate you get during Casca's flashback, but luckily not to the same extent, but bizarrely you get Griffith having visions of Guts whilst having sex.
As expected, Griffith is caught the next morning, with the rest of the Hawks wandering around without armour, freezing cold and with Pippin doing his thing to warn of the impending attack, which is actually quite brutal I might add. This is intertwined with the king whipping away at Griffith as he hangs in his chamber. As we go back we can see the Hawks doing every attempt to escape the onslaught.
Soon after, we have our next cameo
This all happens as Guts passes by two wagons, he looks up as if he senses Puck's presence. Puck has also looked up in a similar way.
We cut back to the torture chamber with Griffith. Griffith is now being tortured by the guard, who knocks off his beherit into the drain. We can see the beherit floating away, which brings us to the end and a montage of what to expect from the third film.
A few fan favourites:
Overall, I was as disappointed in the film as I was expecting to be. The animation was sloppy, the direction equally so. There were so many meaningful moments from the manga that has been omitted that it's not even the same story any more, or at least not the same depth of what it should be. I believe they have really tried to give each character some screen time, but they're bulking out various areas within the film that don't need bulking, I can't help but feel the time could have been used more wisely. Also, that ball room dance scene is the possibly the worst bastardisation I have seen so far, but it's in a tie for the removal of Zodd.
Regardless, I'm still somewhat looking forward to seeing the third film, since it could prove to have some things done quite nicely from what we've seen so far and I'm hoping that Studio 4C have both found their feet and seen the error of their ways through fan complaints by now. but for now, I'm pretty Sure that The Battle for Doldrey is a step in the WRONG direction.
EDIT:
WARNING POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD!
First off, the animation at the beginning of the film between Casca and Adon is horrendous, you can really tell where the CG is being too heavily used, it's like a cheap Children's show on Nickelodeon, the lines on Adon as he closes in on the camera become horribly thick and tacky looking.
Once Guts and Casca reach the woods the animation appears to pick up slightly, but even some of the 2D artwork and animation isn't brilliant. Then we're met with the choppy flashback scene that we got from the Young Animal clip I posted a while back, we all know how painful that is, not only in animation but for accuracy, at least the music shortly after makes up for it (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Li1LyFOiH3s).
We very quickly move on to the 100 man battle, still with a lot of CG, likely to deal with the amount of people on screen at once, but it doesn't hold up too well, it's fairly choppy in places, but at least Adon is looking a little bit better. I do find some amusement in Guts throwing his helmet at an opponent though and some of the camera scanning is a nice touch. Guts does have a real sense of struggle about him during this scene, they seem to have carried this over quite nicely. It would appear that rather cocky sword volley has disappeared (although I may have just missed it, yep I missed it, it's still there) and Samson doesn't make an appearance either.
We seem to see Guts going Berserk for the first time and have a real indication of what to expect when he becomes the Black Swordsman. The amount of destruction Guts has left in the battle is very heavily shown and appears really impressive, the lighting for this scene is also quite nice with added morning mist over the top. Hang on, what's this?! They've captured Adon?! Okay, let's see how this works out.
In the next scene we're greeted with a cow being launched from a catapult (so there goes our campfire of dreams scene) at the Castle and yet more horrendous CG moments where characters appear to be missing chins because the cel shading is ineffective. The most simple scenes are probably the most neatly animated. The meeting with the king to plan the battle is probably the cleanest of all the scenes in the film so far, but I feel like we've gotten here far too quickly, but then we know they have to cram things into a set running time.
Gennon appears and sounds more like Shun Di from the Virtua Fighter series in this interpretation
More choppy CG animation shortly after of the Hawks leading the attack on Doldrey, we see Boscone gearing up to take part in the battle. There are some real hit and miss moments during this battle, some things are particularly impressive from a distance to show the scale, but up close they just look shoddy, it's all pretty inconsistent, the music also leaves little to be desired, someone really needs to re-dub this with Forces.
As the scene develops, we appear to see and hear more from the Hawks, with a little bit of show from Corkus, but not enough to do much in the ways of character development. Casca is doing a princess Leia wandering into the castle leading in Adon with her Crossbow...now that's a bit of a let down and a real change from the original plan of action
Adon breaks free from being captured and challenges Casca.Now we're on to the fight between Guts and Boscone. We see only bits and pieces of the fight as it goes back between this one and Casca with Adon. What's going on IN the castle seems to have very little involvement, it doesn't have the same impact as the manga or the 97 anime series
in any way, Casca is keen to take on Adon herself with no interference from anyone else, she is soon backed up against a wall by Adon, instead of using her sword, like she does in the manga, she manages to dodge his attack, take his sword and jam it through his mouth. Much like everything Studio 4C has done so far, I see no reason why this needed changing.
Back on to Guts who has since been knocked off his horse, we see Boscone do a single sweep against multiple Hawks soldiers showering the place with blood and guts, which is quite a nice touch. Guts throws a flag at Boscone to distract him before following up with an attack to cut both him and his horse in half. Now this is the point where I get both mad and upset about the removal of
and Studio 4C make more fucking retarded changes Of course, now we see the Hawks have taken the castle and there's a little celebration among Pippin, Corkus, Judo, Rickert etc. Griffith has his standard talk with Gennon before putting a sword through his eye. We've had a little battlefield reflection and a view of the damage before the village celebrations of everyone returning from battle. There's a lot of towns folk being animated in this scene, we even see a girl climb up on Corkus' horse to give him a bit of a snog? WTF?!
We see Guts have his interaction with Gaston, which is nice, but I can't help but feel that across both the films so far that he's gotten even more character development than the rest of The Hawks. On to the ballroom scene, we actually appear to be getting some development from the Hawks and then we're greeted with....
so it appears Azan is in there too..
Guts and Casca have their talk outside, they come back in to a speech from the king and alas there is no poisoning of Griffith as we all know. Instead we are greeted with a very awkward dance scene that is not only poorly animated it shows characters portrayed in a way I was hoping I wouldn't see them. Guts and Casca dancing? FUCK NO! NO STUDIO 4C! NO!
Cut to the next morning, Guts is leaving through a snow covered land, where Casca and co. are waiting for him up ahead. Now, this scene doesn't make sense, as we didn't see any of the Hawks foreseeing Guts leaving, so them being there doesn't quite add up. Corkus has a lot to say in this instance. We soon move on to the duel between Guts and Griffith, which has a fair amount of build up and has some nice visual effects when looking out over the landscape behind them, despite the inaccurate and horribly flawed character layout. I also wonder why there is a massive circle left around them when Guts swings his sword down, it seems a little exaggerated to me. Guts sure enough leaves with Griffith in his state of despair.
We're then on to Charlotte's sensitive boobs, which is another awkward scene we could all do without
but we're soon in a full blown and rather erotic sex scene that's a little bit more pornographic than I had initially expected, which may give us some ideas to how they will handle the eclipse. This scene also uses the horrible stuttering frame rate you get during Casca's flashback, but luckily not to the same extent, but bizarrely you get Griffith having visions of Guts whilst having sex.As expected, Griffith is caught the next morning, with the rest of the Hawks wandering around without armour, freezing cold and with Pippin doing his thing to warn of the impending attack, which is actually quite brutal I might add. This is intertwined with the king whipping away at Griffith as he hangs in his chamber. As we go back we can see the Hawks doing every attempt to escape the onslaught.
Soon after, we have our next cameo
This all happens as Guts passes by two wagons, he looks up as if he senses Puck's presence. Puck has also looked up in a similar way.
We cut back to the torture chamber with Griffith. Griffith is now being tortured by the guard, who knocks off his beherit into the drain. We can see the beherit floating away, which brings us to the end and a montage of what to expect from the third film.
A few fan favourites:
Overall, I was as disappointed in the film as I was expecting to be. The animation was sloppy, the direction equally so. There were so many meaningful moments from the manga that has been omitted that it's not even the same story any more, or at least not the same depth of what it should be. I believe they have really tried to give each character some screen time, but they're bulking out various areas within the film that don't need bulking, I can't help but feel the time could have been used more wisely. Also, that ball room dance scene is the possibly the worst bastardisation I have seen so far, but it's in a tie for the removal of Zodd.
Regardless, I'm still somewhat looking forward to seeing the third film, since it could prove to have some things done quite nicely from what we've seen so far and I'm hoping that Studio 4C have both found their feet and seen the error of their ways through fan complaints by now. but for now, I'm pretty Sure that The Battle for Doldrey is a step in the WRONG direction.
Thanks for the detailed review and all the images, Jezza!
It's so much worse than I imagined it would be... My god, what an embarrassment for poor Boscone.
JezzaX said:
Why are they leading Adon into the castle?Casca is doing a princess Leia wandering into the castle leading in Adon with her Crossbow...now that's a bit of a let down and a real change from the original plan of action
..........
So, I guess she was commander of the Holy Iron Chain Knights for a full 2 years before she encountered Guts? Whatever...
That happens in the manga as well. It's made clear that Griffith is fixated on Guts leaving him throughout the seduction scene.
Totally needless addition. He looks pretty good though, I have to say.
Yep, it's all about what I expected based on the early impressions. But it doesn't dampen my excitement for Descent at all, despite all previous warnings
Casca has her face covered and has Adon held up with a Crossbow. They're using him as a method to get inside the Castle walls, as I would assume the guards would recognise him and let him in.Walter said:
It just somehow seemed more perverse here, kind of like he has more of an attraction to Guts. It could just be me and could be why I picked up on it when compared with the manga.Walter said:
Despite it not being entirely needed, I must admit it was a cute little addition.Walter said:
Gobolatula
praise be to grail!
Visually this movie's quite a bit better than the first one, just like Miura said. However, Miura's job is to be humble and grateful, and it's our job to be pissed off.
The CG still sticks out like a sore thumb. The faces are way better during the CG scenes, but still. The parts that are animated by hand are way, way, better. I honestly think I prefer the "cheapness" of the old TV series to this.
I'm with JezzaX. I'm like halfway through and they've cut / changed way too much shit. I miss little scenes like Guts arguing with the doctor after the 100 man slaying. I find myself anticipating things that just don't show up.
Whatever.
The CG still sticks out like a sore thumb. The faces are way better during the CG scenes, but still. The parts that are animated by hand are way, way, better. I honestly think I prefer the "cheapness" of the old TV series to this.
I'm with JezzaX. I'm like halfway through and they've cut / changed way too much shit. I miss little scenes like Guts arguing with the doctor after the 100 man slaying. I find myself anticipating things that just don't show up.
Whatever.
Read the reviews on here after being hesitant to read it but curiosity got the best of me. My BR is still sealed, waiting on subs.
It must've been hard to type or hit the pause button to type out the review JezzaX, don't think I could do that cos it'd take away from the viewing experience.
We've both known about that scene for months ... you sound surprised.
It must've been hard to type or hit the pause button to type out the review JezzaX, don't think I could do that cos it'd take away from the viewing experience.
JezzaX said:
We've both known about that scene for months ... you sound surprised.
Gobolatula
praise be to grail!
I actually thought the dance scene as a whole was cheesy and out of place. Guts and Casca were cute though, twirling around like dummies. It was just a very out-of-character thing for them to do, so it shouldn't have happened.
IncantatioN said:
I watched it through twice in one sitting. Without subtitles, my viewing experience wasn't going to be at it's peak (despite knowing the story anyway), so I just covered what I could.
IncantatioN said:
I already knew about it, I just wasn't expecting it to be as horrible as it was. I was anticipating a minor dance interval where Guts is briefly shown being dragged to the dance floor, but this was such an image shift for the whole scene when you compare it to Griffith originally being poisoned. The scene is meant to be full of suspense, but instead they decided to Disney it up to the extreme
I agree, the material that actually made it into the movie is pretty good.lon3vvolf said:
First I just have to say I REALLY dig that soundtrack (later part of 100 man battle and end credits) sorry for not giving any links (its already annoying browsing the web with an android as it is). Haven't been too observant of the music up to this point, and I know its the same song as in the first movie but that acoustic version really set the tone. I'm def gonna get the entire OST just from hearing that piece.
I really only got one big complaint about the animation, and thats how awkwardly different Casca's and Guts' CG and normal faces look during the early part of the 100 man battle, especially Casca's, seriously that was just BAD, it practically looks like two different people.
Lol it doesn't look as pathetic as it sounds when you read it like thatNomad said:
So yeah, the really big issue to me - is not the needless cameos OR how they might have changed some details (eventhough it kinda pisses you off but anyways) OR dragged out scenes (and we saw the result with rushed scenes in the first movie *cough!*Zodd*cough!*, doesn't have to be either or but too long is better than too short I guess) - BUT all the shit they CUT. I may be stating the obvious here but when I rewatched it it almost felt like they'd cut more stuff than what they actually adapted, and occasionally to the point of almost no recognition of the original story. Tbh I day dreamed a bit and imagined myself watching a long documentary/preview thingy showing just parts of a few key moments of a much bigger project. And I realized if you look at it that way you might appreciate it more (switching that "documentary/preview thingy" with the manga of course
)Oh well, I'm done rambling now...